The Thinning

By: Inga Simpson

Published by Akashic Books, Limited, 2026-05-05

"Stunningly wrought . . . The Thinning moves with the compressed momentum of a thriller toward a spectacular climax." --Guardian

"Heart-racing . . . [An] emotive tour de force." --Australian Women's Weekly

"A spine-tingling literary thriller that will keep you racing to the end. The Thinning blurs the lines between animal, human, and adaptation, and provides a gripping glimpse of our possible future through a fascinating astrological lens. An emotional tribute to the natural world. Moving. Urgent. Beautifully written."

--Karen Viggers, author of The Orchardist's Daughter

FIN GREW UP BY AN OBSERVATORY, learning about telescopes and planets, inspired by the passions of her mother and father, then leaders in their fields of astrophotography and astronomy. Those days are long over. Now Fin, her mother Dianella, and a band of outliers live deep off the grid, always on amber alert and always ready to run.

In the outside world, things are not good: extinctions and a loss of diversity threaten what's left of the environment. With a new disaster looming, Fin finds herself thrust into an unlikely partnership with a stranger who has appeared in their camp. Terry is one of a new breed of evolved humans, the Incompletes, who are widely distrusted. But the pair will need to work together during a dangerous journey if they are to play their part in a plan to help restore the natural world--and humankind.

The Thinning is an exquisitely written novel of both nature and urgent psychological suspense. There are echoes of Margaret Atwood in its themes about fertility, and it is also reminiscent of Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind, Megan Hunter's The End We Start From, and Joanne Ramos's The Farm.